A library for the 21st Century - is e-only finally a possibility?

1. A library for the 21st Century - is e-only finally a possibility? Monica Crump & Neil O’Brien James Hardiman Library

2. One library’s attempt to go e-only • Evolution of e-journals at NUI Galway • Budgetary, storage and staffing drivers • Print to Electronic Journal Project • How we did it • What we achieved James Hardiman Library

3. NUI Galway • University Mission: “Learning and Leadership for Life and Work” • Strategic focus on excellence in both research and teaching • Almost 17,000 students (12,500 FTEs) • Broad range of subjects • Sunday Times University of the Year 2009 James Hardiman Library

4. James Hardiman Library • Collections: • 500,000 printed books • 30,000 journal titles • 350,000 electronic books • Special Collections and Archives • Tradition of being early adopters of new technologies: • Online A/I services • E-journals • Link Resolver & Federated Search Engine - SFX/Metalib • Primo James Hardiman Library

5. Evolution of E-journals Availability • Starting Point (2000): • JSTOR, Science Direct, Business Source Premier, 311 e-journals • Gradual Increase (2002-): • Print + Electronic combined subscriptions • Full-text publisher bundles • IReL (2004-) James Hardiman Library

6. IReL – Irish Research eLibrary • Research a key strategic priority for the Irish Government • Science Foundation Ireland founded in 2000 • first substantial State source of funding for research. • Lack of information resources soon identified as an issue. • Senior Researchers and the University Librarians lobbied successfully for funding for an e-Library to support research. • IReL was born! James Hardiman Library

7. IReL – Irish Research eLibrary • IReL delivers quality, peer-reviewed, online research publications direct to the desktop of University researchers. • Range and quality of publications comparable to leading research libraries, incl. MIT, Columbia University and Imperial College London. James Hardiman Library

8. IReL – Progressive Development 2004 Funding of Science, Technology and Medicine eLibrary (particular focus on Biotechnology and I.T.) 2005 Expansion of eLibrary to other areas of STM 2006 Funding of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences James Hardiman Library

9. Increasing number of IReL e-journals James Hardiman Library

10. Impact on Journals accessible to NUI Galway James Hardiman Library

11. Evolution of Attitudes to e-Journals • Critical mass of e-journal availability • very positive affect on acceptance of e-journals as a reliable alternative to print and attitudes towards them. • Collection Management Policy has grown ever more certain in its direction • preference for electronic vs. print journals. • Surveys have shown a concomitant shift in attitude towards e-journals amongst academic staff and researchers. James Hardiman Library

12. Changing Policy - 2003 • Collection Management Policy February 2003: • “The Library will purchase and retain an item in only one formatunless there is a particularly strong case to do otherwise.” • However, the same policy also stated: • “Electronic journals provide possibilities for wider access; the Library aims to supplement existing print subscriptions by making available the online version where possible. The viability of completely online access is explored on a case-by-case basis, a key factor being the publisher’s commitment to online archiving.” James Hardiman Library

13. Changing Policy - 2004 • Revision to Collection Management Policy November 2004: • “A subscription to any title should only encompass one publication format…. Electronic journals provide possibilities for wider access and reduced overheads. The viability of completely online access is explored on a case-by-case basis, key factors being the publisher’s commitment to online archiving and proposed conditions of access.” James Hardiman Library

14. Changing Policy - 2009 • Collection Management Policy – Jan. 2009 • “The Library recommends online subscription over print where available, because of the improved accessibility offered by electronic journals both on and off campus, the speedier availability of latest issues, and the reduced storage and handling costs involved. The viability of completely online access is explored on a case-by-case basis, key factors being the publisher’s commitment to online archiving and proposed conditions of access.” James Hardiman Library

15. Changing Attitudes – Surveys • Cycle of surveys of NUI Galway researchers • academic staff, researchers, research and taught postgraduates • 2003, 2005 and 2008 surveys show a marked change of attitude towards online information generally and journals specifically. James Hardiman Library

16. Change in how library services are accessed James Hardiman Library

17. Change in frequent use of journals James Hardiman Library

18. Increase in Satisfaction with Journals James Hardiman Library

19. Online Information Makes Physical Collections less Important James Hardiman Library

20. Different Trend in Arts, Humanities, Social Sciences James Hardiman Library

21. Drivers to take the e-only plunge • Staffing issues • E-journal management issues • Budgetary restrictions • Storage space restrictions James Hardiman Library

22. Staffing Issues 2004 Journals Staffing • Print: 3 FTE Library Assistants • Electronic: 1 Assistant Librarian Electronic Resources 2009 Journals Staffing • Print: 2.6 FTE Library Assistants • Electronic: 1 Assistant Librarian Electronic Resources with assistance from AL Collection Management and AL Cataloguing James Hardiman Library

23. E-Journal Management • Insufficient staff numbers to ensure full accuracy of e-journal linking and holdings information • Reactive – errors corrected as they are reported by staff and students • No ‘check-in’ equivalent • Given level of investment, this is no longer satisfactory James Hardiman Library

24. But, print still required work James Hardiman Library

25. Budgetary Restrictions • National Economic Situation: • Public Finances in deficit • Cuts in University Budgets • Public Sector Moratorium on Recruitment James Hardiman Library

26. NUI Galway Response • Significant cut in non-pay budgets, two years running • Guidelines to Schools and Units include: • Eliminate duplication of content between print and online formats • Develop a policy towards use of online journals only, which reduce the need to bind, cost less and do not require expensive storage space • Optimize use of existing resources, i.e. best use to be made of existing staff and space James Hardiman Library

27. Storage Space Restrictions • James Hardiman Library and off site storage now officially full! • Essential to rationalise what we hold in print so as to allow room for new acquisitions • JSTOR print holdings have now been discarded, further similar projects planned • Can we justify continuing to add print journal issues? James Hardiman Library

28. Time was ripe! • Increased acceptance of and satisfaction with e-journals • Increasing dissatisfaction internally with how we managed e-journals • Journals staff resource not being put to best use • Storage space a critical issue • The time was ripe for a move to e-only …. James Hardiman Library

29. Situation leading up to the project

30. Increasing proportion of e-only The percentage of electronic only titles increased because of a number of factors:- • an increasing number of publishers began to decouple and remove free electronic access with a print subscription • Swets notices alerted us to titles which could be renewed as electronic only and decoupled from print • New subscriptions from 2007 were taken out as electronic only. In the budget year 2007-2008 of the 46 titles added to the collection 30 were purchased as online only James Hardiman Library

31. Extent of e-only prior to 2009 Breakdown of Faculties: • Law 8.9% electronic only; • Arts 13.3% electronic only; • Business and Economics 27.45% electronic only; • Engineering 27.45% electronic only; • Medicine 16.9% electronic only; • Science 19.87% electronic only; • General Library 29.84% electronic only; James Hardiman Library

32. Pilot Print to Electronic Project 2007 Publishers increasingly adopting a flexible approach to decoupling print and electronic In 2007 we attempted to look at moving titles to e only Two academic departments were piloted, one STM and one AHSS James Hardiman Library

33. Pilot Print to Electronic Project 2007 • STM Dept.: • 24 journal subscriptions • 9 available as e-only • But only 3 had guaranteed post-cancellation access • AHSS Dept.: • 57 journal subscriptions • 14 available as e-only • But again only 3 had guaranteed post-cancellation access James Hardiman Library

34. Developments in 2009 • Elsevier • Consortial agreement for Science Direct Freedom Collection due for renegotiation • Up to 2009 under the terms of agreement 96 titles were required to be kept as part of a maintain spend • Under the new agreement titles could be renewed as electronic only with full post cancellation archival access James Hardiman Library

35. Developments in 2009 • LWW • 33 LWW print and electronic subscriptionsrenewed as e-only directly with Ovid/Wolters Kluwer in Summer 2009 • UKSG 2009 • Discussions with publishers re decoupling print and electronic and post-cancellation access • Vast majority had policies allowing both James Hardiman Library

36. IReL Deduplication 155 print subscriptions still held to titles available electronically through IReL In some cases we had failed to spot the duplications due to the out of date publisher information in our catalogue The IReL model license had a clause covering post cancellation access These 155 titles were cancelled in print James Hardiman Library

37. Print to Electronic Project In total 284 titles had moved to electronic only by the beginning of the Summer of 2009 This left 1334 titles left to be considered of whom some were already electronic only The feedback from UKSG in 2009 seemed to indicate that publisher’s policies were changing in regard to post cancellation access and allowing the decoupling of P&E We decided to directly survey all publishers directly James Hardiman Library

38. Criteria for moving to e-only • Based on our experience up to that point, we decided that the most important criteria would be :- • Perpetual post cancellation access • Involvementin dark archiving initiatives such as LOCKKS and Portico • Technical considerations (e.g. IP authentication) • Cost James Hardiman Library

39. Perpetual Post-Cancellation Access During 2007 pilot academics had voiced concerns about cancelling print and whether e-only subscriptions would allowlong term (including post cancellation)access to titles According to research by Stemper and Barribeau this is not a concern unique to us. James Hardiman Library

40. Perpetual Post-Cancellation Access • 2003 survey of 7,400 US university faculty members • 75% said a journal should ensure that its archives be preserved indefinitely. • 84% of respondents said that the archiving of electronic resources was important to them Jim Stemper and Susan Barribeau Perpetual Access to Electronic Journals – a survey taken of one Academic Library’s licenses, 52 (2) LRTS James Hardiman Library

41. Perpetual post-Cancellation access The Digital Library Federation (DLF) Electronic Resource Management Initiative (ERMI) defines a perpetual access right as ‘the right to permanently access the licensed materials paid for during the period of the licence agreement’ This was set as our primary criterion The publisher should also state their policy in regard dark archiving such as Portico, LOCKSS & CLOCKSS James Hardiman Library

42. Technical Criteria • Full IP authentication • Off campus access via Proxy server • Open URL compliant • Subscription provided through our agent Swets

43. Other Criteria E-access via an aggregator was not considered sufficiently secure to enable print cancellation Titles should be published on a dedicated publisher platform or a tried and tested hosting platform such as Ingenta or Metapress. We decided early in the project that difference in cost between print and electronic should not be a significant factor in our decision to change format. James Hardiman Library

44. Communicating with the Publishers Didn’t use Swets for bulk of the project as we thought direct access to the publisher would result in a prompt reply to all of our queries. Model email was drawn up and sent directly to each of the publishers - very time consuming. Swets could not provide us with a contact name in the publishing houses due to data protection. Contacts and publisher information were found on Ulrich's International Periodicals Directory and on Google – very time consuming. James Hardiman Library

45. Communicating with the Publishers Replies very slow. Regular reminders and follow up emails needed. By late July called in Swets to help with any non-responding publishers James Hardiman Library

46. Communicating with the Academic Community IReL experience of academic reactions to proposals to cancel print duplication. We based our arguments on the savings made to the University in terms of space, staff time, binding and management Support from the University Management Team and the Library Senior Management Team to bring this electronic Journals project to the fore. Vested ourselves with armour to protect ourselves from undue criticism of the project from Faculties and Departments. Most of academics were receptive to these arguments however a number of issues emerged during the consultation process. James Hardiman Library

47. Communicating with the Academic Community Academic community informed of planned print cancellations and given time to submit any pleas for retention. Collection Management Committee considered any issues raised by academics and made final decision Overall the responses sent to the Committee were very positive and few objections were made. Those that were presented made strong arguments and these were accepted where a good case was made. James Hardiman Library

48. Issues raised by the AcademicCommunity A prestigious and old collection Accreditation Image Quality Core Titles James Hardiman Library

49. A prestigious and old collection Some academics bemoaned the cancellation of a print collection which stretched back to the foundation of the University in the middle of the 19th Century. In the JSTOR discarding project the Collection Management Committee agreed to retain some back-runs that were considered important to the history of the University. However, our policy now is that our preference for current journal access is electronic. Therefore, no title for moving to electronic qualified under this heading James Hardiman Library

50. Accreditation Academics argued that external accreditation bodies (in particular for professional qualifications such as Nursing or Law) require print holdings of key professional journals James Hardiman Library